Federal Communications Commission	FCC 19-121


STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL

Re: 	Review of Rules and Requirements for Priority Services, National Security Emergency Preparedness Telecommunications Service Priority System, NTIA Petition for Rulemaking to Revise the Rules for Wireless Priority Service, NTIA Petition for Rulemaking to Revise the Rules for the Telecommunications Service Priority System, PS Docket No. 20-187.

With this rulemaking the Federal Communications Commission kicks off an effort to update its policies for priority communications in times of national emergency.  This is important because it has been decades since we examined these rules.  In that time, the way we communicate in crisis has changed in a big way.  The number of switched access lines has precipitously declined, while internet-based forms of communications have been on the rise.  As a result, I support today’s effort because it can help ensure that old voice-centric rules evolve in our new data-centric world.  
Of course, this is not the only place that we should be seeking to make such changes.  When it comes to service outages, the FCC still only requires reporting on voice services.  That just doesn’t make sense.  We are in the middle of a pandemic, living our lives online, and yet our rules governing communications outages are stuck in the era of basic telephone lines.  They need an update.  They need to include broadband reporting outages, too.  A proposal to address this gap in our reporting system has been pending for four years.  It needs our attention—and action.
	Finally, I appreciate that with this rulemaking the FCC is acting in response to not one, but two, petitions from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.   Later this month, we expect to receive another petition from our NTIA colleagues at the Department of Commerce.  Pursuant to a recent Executive Order, they will ask this agency to develop rules about when and how social media companies will be protected under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for online content.  But let’s not take that bait.  While social media is frustrating, turning the FCC into the President’s speech police is not the answer.  If we honor the Constitution, we will dismiss this petition immediately.  

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